ing
himself with raw venison. Never have I enjoyed a meal so heartily.

For two days I searched fruitlessly back and forth from the inland sea
almost to the barrier cliffs for some trace of Ajor, and always I
trended northward; but I saw no sign of any human being, not even the
band of Galu warriors under Du-seen; and then I commenced to have
misgivings. Had Chal-az spoken the truth to me when he said that Ajor
had quit the village of the Kro-lu? Might he not have been acting upon
the orders of Al-tan, in whose savage bosom might have lurked some
small spark of shame that he had attempted to do to death one who had
befriended a Kro-lu warrior--a guest who had brought no harm upon the
Kro-lu race--and thus have sent me out upon a fruitless mission in the
hope that the wild beasts would do what Al-tan hesitated to do? I did
not know; but the more I thought upon it, the more convinced I became
that Ajor had not quitted the Kro-lu village; but if not, what had
brought Du-seen forth without her? There was a puzzler, and once again
I was all at sea.

On the second day of my experience of the Galu country I came upon a
bunch of as magnificent horses as it has ever been my lot to see. They
were dark bays with blazed faces and perfect surcingles of white about
their barrels. Their forelegs were white to the knees. In height they
stood almost sixteen hands, the mares being a trifle smaller than the
stallions, of which there were three or four in this band of a hundred,
which comprised many colts and half-grown horses. Their markings were
almost identical, indicating a purity of strain that might have
persisted since long ages ago. If I had coveted one of the little
ponies of the Kro-lu country, imagine my state of mind when I came upon
these magnificent creatures! No sooner had I espied them than I
determined to possess one of them; nor did it take me long to select a
beautiful young stallion--a four-year-old, I guessed him.

The horses were grazing close to the edge of the forest in which Nobs
and I were concealed, while the ground between us and them was dotted
with clumps of flowering brush which offered perfect concealment. The
stallion of my choice grazed with a filly and two yearlings a little
apart from the balance of the herd and nearest to the forest and to me.
At my whispered "Charge!" Nobs flattened himself to the ground, and I
knew that he would not again move until I called him, unless danger
threaten